David Rusenko

I just realized this past week that there is currently no way to export your contact information out of Facebook. A few applications that built this functionality have been taken off-line by request for TOS violations.

Which got me thinking: What would happen if Facebook lost my information? Having gone to college in the Facebook age, would I even know who my college friends were, and how to get in touch with them? (Honestly, probably not)

I sent this question off to Facebook support. Jamie replied:
"Unfortunately, the feature you are requesting is not presently available. We will keep your suggestion in mind, however, as we continue to improve the site. Let me know if you have any further questions."

With all of this excitement over Platform -- even more data in -- how do we find it acceptable that we're unable to back-up any data, at all? In 20 years, will I ever be able to get access to all of the interactions and information that I put into Facebook?

And how do we find it acceptable that Facebook is actively working against us getting any information out?

Edit: Alex3917 on news.YC posts: "There used to be an option to export to CSV. Looks like they got rid of it. The fact that they are actually removing functionality says something."

Matt Brezina made a good point -- the last header image had to go. This one was taken while driving cross country from State College to San Francisco.